Echoes
by Dracoromae
Summary: A lone traveler in a lonely cavern, spurred on by curiosity and a strange feeling emanating from within.


A/N: Lyrics come from "Sleepsong" by Secret Garden and are not mine. It's a fantastic lullaby. I highly recommend listening to it.

The cavern was exceedingly dark; darker even than the passage that brought him there. It was thick and heavy like a fog; charged with something powerful, something instinctual. He began to wonder if he could even get in, thinking that whatever hung in the air here might physically refuse passage. He began to wonder if he actually _wanted _to go in. It was like he was trespassing upon something almost sacred; something best left undisturbed, left to itself.

Several times he tried to use his shadow abilities to sense what was in the chamber, but for some reason, he could feel nothing. It was as if something was blocking him, shutting him out of the void ahead. He felt fear like never before; but not for his life. Somehow, just as he could feel the charge in the air, he could feel that nothing threatening lurked beyond that heavy veil.

No, he was afraid of something else entirely, something he could feel beyond this passage. Not a threat, not an individual, not even a thought.

A feeling; an emotion. One so concentrated, so powerful that he couldn't decipher it. Even outside the darkened chamber, he found himself struggling to sort out himself from the weighted presence that so completely enveloped him. He wondered that, if it was so powerful even outside its clear boundary, how would he endure its magnitude inside the chamber?

He stood outside for a long time, trying to gather the courage he needed to go in. Finally it was the thought of his mate that set his mind. _I've come this far for her. I can't let her down by stopping now. _He briefly glanced at the likeness of her he had brought with him. _Be with me. Give me strength. _

Slowly he lifted a paw, which had seemed to root itself to the cold stone beneath him, and forced it forward. Then another. And another.

As soon as his claws passed through the intangible boundary, a surge of… something rushed through him, freezing him in his tracks once again. It was powerful, so much so that he could not find a word in known language that could qualify to describe it. Its sheer force was terrifying, but it was not the only thing he could feel. Hidden just behind that power was a feeling so gentle that it, too, defied description. They mingled and clashed in innumerable ways, forming a single entrancing dance of inexplicable harmony.

And around it all was that same prevalent emotion he had felt in the tunnel, covering everything in sickening blanket. Its strength too had increased dramatically upon his entrance past the veil. It wormed its way into his mind through his eyes, ears, and nose, assaulting his senses with forgotten dreams, memories, and prophecies, both true and not. They flashed by so quickly, he couldn't decipher them. He couldn't tell which were real and which weren't. Until they all converged on one scene.

It was her. She was standing a ways ahead of him. In a field of prairie grasses. Swaying in the wind. He could hear the rustling of each blade. Smell the fresh soil beneath their paws. She was looking over her shoulder at him. Smiling. Laughing. He could hear it. Its musical chime, harmonizing with the gentle breeze. Her scent, contrasting beautifully with the earth. He breathed it in, and sighed happily. Then, everything stopped.

Her face froze, mid-laugh. Slowly her expression changed into anguish. Pain. Agony. Her legs were bent wrong, lying on the ground. The scarlet, blood-soaked dirt. The grasses were gone. In their place crumbling stone and burning bodies. The air was still. The scent of hot blood hung stagnant over it all, choking him. He was running. Slowly. Running towards her. Towards the collapsing tower above her. Towards the inevitability.

She lifted her head and saw him. Her gaze filled with pain, sorrow, regret. She smiled sadly at him. He screamed.

The visions snapped to a close, leaving him gasping. He collapsed to the ground, struggling to breathe past the constricting feeling in his chest. The same feeling that surrounded him in the rocky cavern. Except, this time, it wasn't foreign. It was his own.

His grief.

Its mourning.

Their loss.

As soon as he recognized it, he felt the emotion recede from around him, into the corners of the chamber ahead; his acknowledgement placating it in some way. The second presence approached to fill the void, caressing his scales like a soft breeze, whispering too faintly for to him to understand. He felt it ever so gently urge him to rise, tapping into its own power to give him strength. It drew him past the entrance, where he still lay, deeper into the chamber.

He rose. And he followed.

Quietly he padded into the chamber, enveloped by an unusual warmth. He could sense the gentle, powerful presence urging him onward, still whispering softly to him.

After a short time, he felt the command to stop. So he did; surrounded on all sides by darkness, he simply waited for whatever this presence wanted to show him.

Suddenly, he could see. A violet light shone from the chamber rock itself; revealing what it had kept hidden from him. The cavern was much smaller than he would have guessed, hewn from the glowing rock. It was bare and rough, with sloping walls forming a semicircular dome. Despite the fact that he was deep underground, Rix could feel a light breeze, circling in the chamber. It echoed off the rough walls to create a natural chorus, soothing him with its melody.

And in the center of it all, still some distance from him, lay a skeleton.

He stood still for a time, simply looking at the sight before him. Eventually he felt the presence urge him forward. So he walked reverently to it, all the time the echoes circling the chamber.

He stopped just before the bones, searching over them with his gaze. He noticed that he had mistaken the sight at first. Instead of one, there were two sets of dragon skeletons; a male and female. The male was the smaller of the two, arranged to look like he was sleeping. It was clearly older; its bones were yellowed with age, pitted and cracked in places. It must have been here for centuries.

The female was the larger of the two. She had wrapped herself around the bones of the male, enveloping him. Its skeleton seemed younger; the bones still white and full. They had a familiarity that the drake couldn't quite place, like he had seen her somewhere before.

Something glinted in the light, catching his eye. Looking closer, he could see several metal bands on the larger skeleton. One around the neck, two on the wrists, and one on its tail. Once again he felt that strange sense of déjà vu.

He felt a tickling wind blow by his paws. Looking down, he spotted an inscription of an unfamiliar name in the glowing rock beneath him. It was delicately carved by a skilled and caring artisan.

_Spyro_

_Hero, Brother, Soulmate_

_He gave his life that we all may live._

_May he never be forgotten._

As he read the words aloud quietly to himself, he felt the specter resurface at his side. This time, though, it seemed more present. It was almost as if she was physically standing there next to him, looking at the intricately carved eulogy.

_She,_ he realized. _It's female._

He turned to face where the spirit stood. Her shade stood there; a faint outline of her spirit, made of the shadows she once commanded. She gazed forlornly at the grave, waves of emotion pouring from her and caressing winds circling her form. Slowly, painfully, she turned to look at him. She had once been very beautiful, very graceful, very powerful. But now she stood defeated before him. Her wings drooped, her tail sagged to the ground, and her head hung low. And her eyes, her eyes were broken. Once captivating emerald pools were glazed over and choked; dull and lifeless. And as he looked deeper into their ruins, he heard the winds whisper again.

_Lay down your head and I'll sing you a lullaby,_

_Back to the years of loo-li lai-lay._

_And I'll sing you to sleep, and I'll sing you tomorrow,_

_Bless you with love for the road that you go._

As the verse floated through the chamber, the shade turned back to her grave. Slowly she ambled over to the miserable pile of bones, circling the ancient body of Spyro before curling around him, perfectly matching her own body. Gently she nuzzled her partner's broken skull, shuddering as her muzzle passed through it completely.

_May you sail fair to the far fields of fortune,_

_With diamonds and pearls at your head and your feet._

_And may you need never to banish misfortune,_

_May you find kindness in all that you meet._

He saw transparent tears in her eyes as she raised her head to look at him. There was an urgency in her gaze: a request, a regret. His thoughts turned to her, and he understood.

She understood too, and turned her eyes back to their bodies, dampened by ghostly tears. She returned her head to its resting place.

_May there always be angels to watch over you,_

_To guide you each step of the way,_

_To guard you, and keep you safe from all harm,_

_Loo-li, loo-li lai-lay._

The traveler stood and gazed at her. She had given him a request, a task she had never been able to fulfill, never would be able to fulfill. He could, though. For his own, he could. She deserved as much. He turned and padded for the exit. And as he left the chamber, he heard the whispering voice of Cynder softly continue her song.

_May you bring love and may you bring happiness, _

_Be loved in return to the end of your days. _

_Now fall off to sleep, I'm not meaning to keep you. _

_I'll just sit for a while and sing loo-li, lai-lay._


End file.
